Kai stood panting with his hands on his knees as he heaved in great gasps of foul air. His muscles burned and his head throbbed from such intense aura focus, but the endless waves of barktail spiders were curled up husks all around him.

He used crystals to begin restoring his aura and health, and offered a healing crystal to the two surviving Rakin, but was disappointed to learn that without an aura they couldn’t use these particular crystals. Kai reviewed his notifications as they hastily patched themselves up.

You are now level 25

You are now level 26

You are now level 27

Achievement: Vital Hunter II

Details: Gain vital aura from 50 sources within 5 seconds.

Reward: +4% efficiency of vital aura attributes

Rarity: Mythic (17/100)

The second rank of Vital Hunter gave a satisfying bump to his stat efficiency, coupled with Apex Bloodborn, he had +8%. He felt his body, mind and senses sharpen slightly. More importantly, he’d gained three levels, and finally had enough points to upgrade his body to E-grade. However he was frustrated that decimating countless waves of barktail spiders had yielded less and less vital aura as the battle went on; he’d seen small amounts pour into his body as he fought. He couldn’t grind endlessly for vital aura against lower-level opponents, they had to be higher level than him, or he’d never reach level 40 in time for bonus trial tokens. With the additional days that had passed he had 11 days left till the first trial ended.

Kai sat down on the loamy soil beneath the bright canopy of mushrooms and put six points into his body stat, bringing it up to 40/40. Kai’s posture stiffened, but no blood or pus oozed out of his skin this time since he’d upgraded gradually. His bones however, ached and his muscles tore as they were reformed. Then a feeling of euphoria swept over him. He smiled serenely as his bones hardened and his muscles condensed. Shallow bruises and cuts stitched themselves closed, leaving subtle scars. His whole body tingled as if a gentle electric current arced through his muscle fibres. Circulating his aura within his body was invigorating and much easier than before. Kai flexed his palm with a grin, wondering how much stronger he had become.

Body: E-Purified (0/80 points)

Vital traits that scale with body have improved slightly: Hotplates, Foxfire.

3 stat points to assign.

Kai blanched, the cost to the next grade had doubled. It took him a moment to do the math but he estimated it would be 26 levels before he could upgrade his body again. He reconsidered where to focus his vital aura gains once more, but at 40 points apiece he still felt mind and senses next was the best path. His Vital Hunter achievement would grant him a discovery when they all reached the same grade. If he did that, then it would be 51 more levels before he could upgrade his body to the next grade at around level 75. That’s a long time away.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He wondered what purified meant; had he finally expunged the reminder of any nasty waste within him? Hawkin interrupted his rumination by rapid fire informing him while pinching his nose that advancing in public was frowned upon. Kai reddened, still not used to being around others; he was closer to a caveman than a monk at this point and didn’t care much for social norms. They talked a bit as they recovered and Kai learnt from Hawkin that he’d probably live over 100 years at this stage and be resistant to things like cancer. Apparently breaking through to the next grade may also require more than just stat points, but Hawkin didn’t know more than that.

Absorbing all the barktail spiders took some time but finally brought Kura’s evolution to 521/500, Kai noted with a grin. She seemed to be getting rather picky lately, gaining pride slowly when the challenge went out of a fight. He had gained a fair amount of crystals despite few of the barktail spiders displaying any auras. He’d only noticed some that had hardened their carapaces; they had been harder to burst.

Kai focused on the concept of evolving Kura, and options appeared that weren’t there before.

Kura: Apex Mimic Ring (Young)

Rarity: Mythic (Spirit Treasure)

Traits: Voracious Pride

Evolution: 521/500 remains consumed until adolescence.

Details: Spatial storage.

253 F-grade Aura Crystal

14 F-grade Healing Crystal

13 E-grade Aura Crystal

1 E-grade Fire Resistance Crystal

427 Refined Ooze hound Honey

5 Obsidian Boulder

Star Forger’s Legacy

Preserved Amber Chrysalis of the Queen

Heritage Crystal: Altair Sol, Starforger.

Normal Evolution: Mature to adolescence, then discover a trait.

Apex Evolution: Mature to adolescence, then discover an apex trait.

Requirement met: Primal vital aura (Magma Wyrm, Amarok Kitsune).

Not met: Unique aura source consumed.

Kai wanted the Apex evolution and was pretty sure Kura would, but he looked at the proud ring and mentally asked anyway.

What do you think, Kura?

The two-tailed white fox lifted her snout into the air and flared her nostrils.

Apex apex.

Then she tried to smile, which really came off as more of a snarl since it revealed her ferocious fangs.

It’s settled then, we wait till we find a unique aura source. Kai let out a long sigh, causing the two Rakin to glance at him expectantly. Kai looked down the lush earthen tunnel smeared in green blood. Slaying this primal will also give me more options. For some reason he couldn’t shake the idea of returning to the Starforge after helping the Rakin; he was pretty sure it was his Apex explorer trait at work. There was bound to be a unique aura source there, there had to be, perhaps the Starforgers body. Otherwise the crystals in the underwater grotto might work too.